Jed Pennington

Update on judicial review of ‘good character’ citizenship policy Our immigration and public law teams are acting in a group of judicial reviews that challenge the Home Office’s policy guidance

Update on our challenge to Home Office policy on assessing good character for British citizenship applications- permission granted in group of lead claims & full hearing in front of Divisional Court on 9-11 June @wilsonsolicitors.bsky.social @onepumpcourt.co.uk
www.wilsonllp.co.uk/news/update-...

Fantastic news, congratulations Alasdair

Huge well done to Jed and team, outrageous that this application was ever refused on good character grounds because of illegal entry. Many will be in the same or similar situation and unable to bring such a challenge. The guidance needs to change.

Inquiry into conditions at Manston asylum centre has stalled, critics say Lawyers acting for some of those unlawfully detained in appalling conditions at site in 2022 call for end to delays An inquiry into what went wrong at an asylum seeker processing centre three years ago is at a standstill, critics have said. A commitment to hold an inquiry into conditions at Manston in Kent in the second half of 2022 was first made by the former home secretary James Cleverly in March 2024 after 18,000 people were unlawfully detained in horrific conditions there. Continue reading...

Inquiry into conditions at Manston asylum centre has stalled, critics say

HO response, essentially - nothing to see here, we do this all the time in immigration, it’s our discretion and we do what we like with it

Attorney General's 2024 Bingham Lecture on the rule of law On 14 October 2024, the Attorney General Lord Hermer KC delivered the 2024 Bingham Lecture titled ‘The Rule of Law in an Age of Populism’.

Difficult to see how this is consistent with the notion of the rule of law described by the AG here - using policy instead of legislation + retrospective effect www.gov.uk/government/s...

The policy says that illegal entry or arrival will normally lead to refusal on character grounds, no matter when this occurred. Whereas restrictions on citizenship for people arriving illegally in ss31-32 Illegal Migration Act 2023 would have only applied to people who arrived after this passed.

They refused two modest requests: to remove the policy‘s retrospective effect and to allow 4 weeks for @ilpaimmigration.bsky.social to make representations so that the positions of all people affected by the policy could be considered.

Client is a Syrian refugee who arrived over 10 years ago. Home Office has agreed to amend the guidance to address art 31 of the Refugee Convention - they say this will be done by end May.

@wilsonsolicitors.bsky.social act in this challenge - my wonderful colleague Mala Savjani and myself, with Victoria Laughton & David Chirico KC @onepumpcourt.co.uk.

Today I am proposing amendments to the borders bill and hoping to speak in debate to be voice for those principles and those people because they are not mutually exclusive. 2/2

#TrueLabour

‘I can no longer see a future in the UK’: new citizenship guidance shuts out refugees Ayman Alhussein made a life in Britain after fleeing Assad but new rules mean he can never become a citizen

Legal challenge to UK policy making UK citizenship impossible for many refugees www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

‘I can no longer see a future in the UK’: new citizenship guidance shuts out refugees Ayman Alhussein made a life in Britain after fleeing Assad but new rules mean he can never become a citizen

‘I can no longer see a future in the UK’: new citizenship guidance shuts out refugees www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Wilson Solicitors’ Public Law & Human Rights team welcomes Jonah Mendelsohn We are thrilled to welcome solicitor Jonah Mendelsohn to our team here at Wilsons

Wilson Solicitors’ Public Law & Human Rights team is thrilled to welcome solicitor Jonah Mendelsohn to the team.

Read more about Jonah, what he brings to our team, and how to get in touch with him on our website here: www.wilsonllp.co.uk/news/wilson-...

People held at UK asylum centre sue government for human rights breach Asylum seekers detained at Manston in Kent say they were kept in unsanitary tents during infectious disease outbreak

Well done @dianetaylor.bsky.social for her persistence in reporting on the Manston scandal:

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Court of Appeal: Home Office failure to consult Medical Justice unlawful In a decision handed down today, 14 March 2025, the Court of Appeal has upheld a judicial review brought by Medical Justice...

The Court of Appeal has ruled that the Home Office acted unlawfully by not consulting Medical Justice on the ‘Second Opinion policy’ impacting detained ‘adults at risk,’ reinforcing consultation as key to democratic governance.

Read more on our website here: www.wilsonllp.co.uk/news/court-o...

Court of Appeal uphold duty on Home Office to consult Medical Justice on policies affecting detention of vulnerable people In a decision handed down today, 14 March 2025, the Court of Appeal has upheld a judicial review brought by Medical Justice

Court of Appeal uphold duty on Home Office to consult Medical Justice on policies affecting detention of vulnerable people: @shushinluh.bsky.social & Laura Profumo acted for @medicaljustice.org.uk in the High Court and on appeal. @jedcpennington.bsky.social @wilsonsolicitors.bsky.social instructed.

The Home Affairs Committee of MPs has just published all the written evidence received for its inquiry into asylum accommodation, including one from provider Serco giving some interesting observations on how 'service users' experience the asylum system committees.parliament.uk/work/8763/as...

In other words, none

Challenge to ‘good character’ citizenship guidance Wilson Solicitors Immigration and Public Law & Human Rights teams are acting in a challenge to the Home Office’s amended guidance

Wilsons are acting in a challenge to the Home Office’s amended guidance on determining a person to be of ‘good character’ for the purposes of an application for British citizenship

Read this article on our website to find out more and how we can help:

www.wilsonllp.co.uk/news/challen...

Challenge to ‘good character’ citizenship guidance Wilson Solicitors Immigration and Public Law & Human Rights teams are acting in a challenge to the Home Office’s amended guidance

Another legal challenge to the good character guidance change

www.wilsonllp.co.uk/news/challen...

Good character guidance amended to block refugees from naturalisation - Free Movement There have been some important additions to pages 50 and 51 of the Good Character guidance (a comparison of the new and old versions is here) that have the

This should be changed asap.

If we give someone refugee status, it can't be right to then refuse them route to become a British Citizen. To say they can have a home in our country, but never a place in our society and be forever second class. freemovement.org.uk/good-charact...

There are some clear concerns about the Border Security Bill introduced today, but it is definitely a good thing that a lot of the Illegal Migration Act is due to will be repealed. The "asylum ban" could have been allowed to just sit on the statute book unused, so deleting it completely is welcome.

TL;DR: could be better, could be a lot worse. As @jonfeatonby.bsky.social says, there’s no sign of a positive vision here. The government doesn’t need legislation for a positive vision. To be fair, they don’t need legislation for that and that’s not what legislation is for.

Really pleased to welcome Frankie to our team

Home Office settles Manston inquiry judicial review - Free Movement The Home Office has settled the judicial review claims that seek an independent Article 3 ECHR compliant inquiry into events at Manston in 2022.

New from Free Movement: Home Office settles Manston inquiry judicial review | Jed Pennington

Some people in recent days have alleged a ‘cover-up’ over the grooming & rape of hundreds of young girls in predominantly northern UK towns, leading to calls for a ‘national’ public inquiry into child sexual exploitation

FWIW here’s a non-exhaustive list of inquiries into #CSE in last 12 yrs…

European Court of Human Rights to rule next Tuesday (7th January) on whether Greece breached ECHR due to alleged 'pushbacks' of asylum seekers - hudoc.echr.coe.int/eng-press?i=...

Legal aid: the need to re-grow from the desert Dr Jo Wilding, a Senior Lecturer in Law at the University of Sussex, discusses the legal aid crisis in the UK and possible solutions to addressing access to justice challenges

My article on legal aid (what else?) in Solicitors Journal. www.solicitorsjournal.com/sjarticle/le... Contract tenders every 5 years already replaced with 'always on' contract applications; now Lord Chancellor and MoJ need to look at using LASPO s1&2 powers to regrow legal aid in the advice deserts

In July, I FOI'd the Home Office for the full breakdown of spending on the Rwanda scheme

I was refused because the government planned to publish the data in future, and today is the day. These numbers are in millions
www.gov.uk/government/p...